The Blendtec Designer 725 is a full-size blender with several automatic blending programs and a touch-sensitive bar you can use to control the blending speed. It comes with a 90-ounce jar with a 34-ounce blending capacity, along with a personal jar and to-go lid intended for single-serve smoothies. The blender's blades aren't sharp, which helps make the jar easier to clean by hand.
Our Verdict
The Blendtec Designer 725 is decent for multi-purpose use. It can quickly crush ice into a snow-like consistency, and while it struggles to fully process leafy greens like kale in its main jar, you can make a decent smoothie in its included personal jar. Unfortunately, it makes passable, dry almond butter, and you can't use it for hot blending. On the upside, it has an outstanding, sturdy build quality and is really easy to clean.
- Quickly makes snow-like ice.
- Can't hot blend.
- Main jar struggles with thick recipes like nut butter.
- Lid feels flimsy.
The Blendtec Designer 725 is fantastic for single-serve smoothies. It comes with a 34-ounce personal jar with a to-go lid, so you can easily blend a smoothie and bring it with you, and it easily processes fibrous ingredients like leafy greens or fruit. It also has an automatic blending program for smoothies, which is nice if you want to multitask while the blender runs. The jars and lids are dishwasher-safe.
- Quickly makes snow-like ice.
- Somewhat loud.
The Blendtec Designer 725 is fantastic for multiple servings of smoothies. It makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients that blenders can struggle with, like kale or fruit skin. It's also fantastic for crushing ice, so it's well-suited for frozen drinks like slushies. It's also very easy to clean by hand, partly because of the blunt blade design. However, despite the jar's 90-ounce volume, its blending capacity per the manufacturer is 36 ounces.
- Quickly makes snow-like ice.
- Somewhat loud.
The Blendtec Designer 725 is exceptional at making crushed ice. It can make uniform, snow-like crushed ice with no unprocessed cubes in less than a minute and has a fantastic, sturdy build quality.
- Quickly makes snow-like ice.
- Lid feels flimsy.
The Blendtec Designer 725 makes a smooth blend with fibrous ingredients, meaning it can produce well-blended recipes like broccoli soup. While it's not meant for blending hot ingredients directly from a pot or pan, you can also start with room-temperature food and use the 'Hot Soup' program to heat them as they blend. It's very easy to clean by hand, and the jars and lids are dishwasher-safe.
- Can't hot blend.
The Blendtec Designer 725 is okay for professional use. It's very well-built but not as versatile as you might hope since it can't hot blend. The main jar's 36-ounce blending capacity is on the small side, and it's not suitable for making smooth nut butter or other thicker recipes like hummus. It easily processes fibrous ingredients like kale and makes snow-like crushed ice. It's very easy to clean by hand, which is a bonus if you use your blender all the time.
- Quickly makes snow-like ice.
- Can't hot blend.
- Main jar struggles with thick recipes like nut butter.
- Somewhat loud.
Changelog
- Updated Mar 03, 2023: Updated text to match Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Aug 30, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Dec 16, 2020: Review published.
- Updated Dec 10, 2020: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Blendtec Designer 725 is available in a few different colors and is sold on its own or in a bundle with an additional jar. We tested the Black variant that comes with a 34oz personal jar. You can see the label here. This variant is also available in another color, Gun Metal, which we expect our results to be valid for as well.
It's also sold with a Twister Jar intended for making thicker blends like nut butter. However, we haven't tested that variant jar, and we don't how it performs versus the GO Travel Bottle personal jar. You can buy extra jars separately from Blendtec's website, including the FourSide Jar, which is an older design with a 32-ounce blending capacity. However, it may perform differently.
| Main Jar | Additional Jar | Color |
|---|---|---|
| 90oz (36oz blending capacity) WildSide+ Jar |
None |
Black |
| 90oz (36oz blending capacity) WildSide+ Jar | None | Gun Metal |
| 90oz (36oz blending capacity) WildSide+ Jar |
None |
Stainless Steel/White |
| 90oz (36oz blending capacity) WildSide+ Jar |
24oz GO Travel Bottle personal jar |
Black |
| 90oz (36oz blending capacity) WildSide+ Jar |
24oz GO Travel Bottle personal jar |
Gun metal |
| 90oz (36oz blending capacity) WildSide+ Jar |
37oz (16oz blending capacity) Twister Jar |
Gun metal |
If you come across another variant of this blender that's different from ours, let us know in the discussions and we'll update our review.
Popular Blender Comparisons
The Blendtec Designer 725 is a full-size blender with outstanding build quality. It can't hot blend, unlike the Blendtec Chef 600 and Blendtec Classic 575, but comes with a personal jar for smoothies. Like other Blendtec blenders we've tested, it has blunt-edged blades that help make it easier to clean by hand than blenders like the Vitamix A2500. However, it also struggles to smoothly blend thick recipes like nut butter.
If you're still looking for a blender, check out our recommendations for the best blenders for crushing ice, the best full-size blenders, and the best blenders for frozen drinks.
The Vitamix Explorian E310 and the Blendtec Designer 725 have different strengths, and you may prefer either, depending on your needs. The Vitamix can hot blend and does a much better job of processing thick mixtures like nut butter. It makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients. On the other hand, the Blendtec's main pitcher has a much bigger 90-ounce capacity, and you may prefer it because it also comes with a personal jar and to-go lid for single-serve smoothies.
The Vitamix A3500 is a better blender than the Blendtec Designer 725 for most uses. The Vitamix is better built and makes a smoother blend of fibrous ingredients. It does a much better job of making nut butter. It's also quieter when it's running. On the other hand, the Blendtec comes with a 24-ounce personal jar for single-serves in addition to its 90-ounce main jar.
The Vitamix 5200 is better for most purposes than the Blendtec Designer 725. The Vitamix makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients like kale and broccoli. It does a better job of processing hard ingredients, like nuts, and you can use it to hot blend. On the other hand, the Blendtec is easier to clean. Its main pitcher has a bigger 90-ounce capacity, and it also comes with a personal jar and to-go lid for making single-serve drinks like smoothies.
The KitchenAid K400 and the Blendtec Designer 725 have different strengths, and you may prefer either one. The Blendtec has a much better build quality, its main jar has a bigger capacity, and it comes with a personal jar for recipes like single-serve smoothies. It's also easier to clean by hand. However, the KitchenAid K400 can be used for hot blending and produces smoother nut butter.
Test Results
It's a bit shorter than the Blendtec Classic 575, but it's still fairly bulky and best stored on your counter or in a spacious cupboard.
This blender has outstanding build quality. The base is made of rubber and stainless steel, with plastic feet to help it grip onto surfaces. Its gear and transmission are made of metal as well. The power cord is thick and feels heavy-duty, and there are vents on the bottom of the base to help with air circulation.
According to the manufacturer, the jar has a 90-ounce total capacity but a 36-ounce blending capacity. The personal jar has a 24-ounce capacity.
The jars and lids are made of plastic. They're also dishwasher-safe.
Blendtec's blades have blunter edges than most blenders that we've tested. This makes them easier to clean by hand, even though you can't remove them from the jar. There's a separate blade assembly for the personal jar that has a similar blunt blade design.
The main jar has a two-part lid with a clear plastic cap in the middle that you can remove to add ingredients while blending. However, the cap feels loose and isn't very tightly secured to the main lid. The lid itself is held in place by friction, and since it's made of flexible plastic and feels flimsy, it doesn't seem very secure.
The Blendtec Designer 725 has a thick power cord long enough to reach most nearby outlets. Unfortunately, there's no compartment to stow it away when you're not using it.
- WildSide+ lid
- 90oz WildSide+ jar
- 34oz Blendtec GO bottle
- Blendtec GO blade assembly
- Blendtec GO lid
- Blendtec GO How-To pamphlet
- Owner's manual
- Motor base
It's fantastic for processing small batches of fibrous ingredients. Using the personal jar, it quickly makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale, so it's very well-suited for single-serve smoothies. Some ingredients can get stuck away from the blades, so you may have to quickly flip the jar to dislodge them.
It's fantastic for big batches of fibrous ingredients. When the jar is filled, it quickly makes a very smooth puree with recipes like a kale smoothie or broccoli soup.
It's outstanding for crushing ice. You need to manually press the pulse button, but aside from that slight inconvenience, it's ideal for making snow-like crushed ice.
It's not good for nut butter. Once it crushes the ingredients initially, it struggles to blend the thick mixture. You need to stop the process often to remove the lid and stir the recipe with a spatula or spoon. You also need to use a low speed most of the time since if you start to ramp up the speed, the blender will sometimes stop and show an 'add liquid' message. The manufacturer says not to run the blender continuously for more than five minutes, so even if you don't need to stir, you need to stop and let the blender rest during the process.
After around 15 minutes of blending and a few more minutes of stirring, the mixture still has a crunchy texture. It's not a bad result, and it's easy to spread on toast, but it takes a while and doesn't manage to smoothly blend the nuts.
It's loud when it's running, like most full-size blenders. If you're looking for something quieter, check out the Wolf Gourmet Pro-Performance and the Breville The Q.
The Blendtec Designer 725 has buttons for eight pre-programmed modes as well as a touch-sensitive bar that you can slide your finger on to adjust the blender's speed. Unfortunately, it's possible to accidentally turn the blender on with the touch-sensitive bar while the lid is off.
The Blendtec Designer 725 has several preset modes that you control with buttons: 'Smoothie', 'Dips', 'Whole Juice', 'Mixed Drinks', 'Hot Soup', 'Batters', 'Ice Cream', and 'Clean Blender'. It has a screen that displays which mode or setting you're using, as well as a stopwatch for manual blending and a countdown timer for the pre-programmed modes.
The manual says to run the blender for no more than five minutes straight. It also says you can't use it to blend ingredients that are already hot, but there's a 'Hot Soup' preset that will warm up cold ingredients as they blend. The result won't be steaming hot, however.
The Blendtec Designer 725 blender is remarkably easy to clean. You can take care of most residue by adding a bit of soap and warm water to the jar and running the 'Clean Blender' preset. It even works if you're blending sticky ingredients, but in that case, you may need to clean the lid manually with a sponge because it has small crevices that food can get stuck in.